Broadway legend LuPone to perform at Brooks Center

Singer features songs she has sung - or wishes she had

11:03 AM, October 4, 2013

'We chose to do this show because I don't think people in Clemson and South Carolina necessarily know who I am, so we thought we'd introduce them to me with this show,' says Patti LuPone of her Tuesday show. / Rahav Segev/Photopass.com

Her show, “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda,” includes songs from musicals LuPone could have played, should have played, did play and will play.

The solo concert, which often changes to accommodate new material, has won critical acclaim whenever and wherever LuPone has performed it in the past.

“We chose to do this show because I don’t think people in Clemson and South Carolina necessarily know who I am, so we thought we’d introduce them to me with this show,” said LuPone, speaking on the phone from her home on South Carolina’s coast.

The show features LuPone accompanied only by a pianist.

LuPone is probably best-known for her Tony Award-winning performances as Eva Peron in the 1979 stage musical “Evita” and as Mama Rose in the 2008 revival of “Gypsy.”

The San Francisco Chronicle has called her “the American musical theater’s greatest living star.”

Her credits include dozens of Broadway, TV and film roles.

In November, she returns to New York’s Carnegie Hall to perform her fourth solo show. She’ll be featured this fall on this season’s installment of the FX series “American Horror Story: Coven” and next year will be seen in the new season of the HBO series “Girls.”

But the stage remains LuPone’s favorite venue.

“The stage is my first love because that’s the actor’s medium,” LuPone said. “I really believe you can’t call yourself a bona fide actor unless you have extensive stage credits. It’s easy to act on camera. There’s no pressure. You shoot out of order and you have multiple times to correct. But there’s a lot of pressure on the stage actor. Live theater is an accident waiting to happen.”

LuPone’s TV and film work takes her often to New York and California, but for relaxation she returns to the home she and her husband built on South Carolina’s coast several years ago.

How often does she return to South Carolina?

“As much as I can,” she said.

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